I don't know much about Benjamin Winstead Evans. He was one of the younger children in Thomas and Lucinda Evans family. He must have been about 8 when his father passed away and his mother probably died not too long after that. We do not know who he lived with for the rest of his youth. He married Elizabeth J. Dorsey at the age of 25 (she was 18) and they always lived near Pine Springs / Sulligent in Lamar County. They had twelve children, of which number at least five lived to adulthood.
In 1900, the census found the family thus:
1900 Lamar County, Alabama CensusA decade later, the family looked like this:
Pine Springs; Household #102
Evans, Ben W. Md. 26 years Nov. 1848 AL SC AL Farmer
Evans, Elisabeth J. July 1855 AL GA TN
Evans, Walter G. Nov. 1882 AL (? Son, Nephew, ???)
Evans, Cleopatra Jan. 1886 AL
Evans, Arelis W. Sept. 1888 AL
Evans, Wilma L. July 1893 AL
Evans, Verlund L. Aug. 1897 AL
1910 Lamar County, Alabama CensusBen Winstead lived to the age of 70, and Elizabeth lived to be 84 years old. They are both buried at the Evans Cemetery in Lamar County. Barbara Carruth has abstracted these notes from Elizabeth's obituary:
Pine Springs; Household # 1
Evans, Ben W. 61 AL NC AL Md. 36 years Farmer
Evans, Eliz. 55 MS GA TN
Evans, Ardie W. (male) 21 AL
Evans, Wilma L. 16 AL
Evans, Verland (male) 12 AL
Elizabeth Dorsey was born in the Pine Springs Community near Sulligent,
AL. She grew to young womanhood and married Benjamin Winstead Evans. The
home was blessed with 10 children. Elizabeth was a descendent of one of
the pioneer families of Lamar County, AL.
She was related to the Stones and Guthries who pioneered Lamar County
in its earliest history. Early in life she joined the Methodist Church
having been baptized in infancy and until her physical strenght declined,
she remained active in church affairs. Her constant devotion to her church
as well as to her friends was a beautiful expression of her deeply religious
nature. Although for several years before her death in 1939, she was not
able to take an active part in the work that she so loved, she never lost
interest in the spiritual and the material welfare of others. She was a
honorary member of the Woman's Missionary Society and of the United Daughters
of Confederacy.
She was affectionately known as "Aunt Betty", she had experienced the
hardships of the pioneer life and withstood toils and disappointments of
the Reconstruction years. She remained optomistic and had adjusted herself
beautifully to the changing time. Elizabeth Dorsey Evans life and her examples
of courage, honesty and intergity will ever be an inspiration to all who
survive. The above was taken from newspaper article written at her death.
Children of Benjamin Winstead Evans
William C. Evans (md. Campie O. McCollum, lived in Lamar County, Alabama, had four children, and died at the age of 69)
Ozema Janette Evans (died at the age of 11 years and buried at Evans Cemetery)
James Esca Evans (died at the age of a year and a half and buried at Evans Cemetery)
Unnamed Evans (died at birth)
Walter Green Evans (unknown what happened to him; may have died young)
Cleopatria Pearl Evans (md. Charles Roy Norton, lived in Lamar County, had three sons, and died at the age of 29)
Ardie Winstead Evans (md. Daisy Ethel Henson and died at the age of 75 in California)
Belmon Clyde Evans (died shortly before his first birthday and buried at Evans Cemetery)
Wilma Love Evans (md. Almoth Lee Smith and then Walter Winford Mays; she remained in Lamar County)
Lecil Verland Evans (md. Ida Jean Henley)
